CHAPTER 10. 



Vices or Habits. 



Feather Pulling and Ealing— Egg Ealing— Comb Eatirg 



FEATHER PULLING AND EATING. 



WHEN fowls pull their own feathers, suspicion 

 of lice or some skin disease should be 

 aroused and a careful examination should be made. 



But occasionally the habit, or vice, of pulling ar.d 

 eating one another's feathers is acquired. 



Causes: An abnormal appetite, often caused by- 

 feeding an insufficient variety of food, or by close con- 

 finement and idleness; or it may be the result of not 

 feeding meat in any form. 



Treatment: If possible, free range should be allow- 

 ed; if this is impossible, exercise should be encoui aged 

 by providing a scratching pen, in which smell grain 

 should be thrown in straw or chaff. A piece of salty 

 m.eat hung just so they can reach it, by making scm.e 

 exertion, is somxetim.cs efTectual. The food should be 

 of as much variety as possible, with plenty of meat 

 and cut bone. 



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